Far left protesters target NRA lobbyists’ home
The Washington Post has a story today about a handful of far-left gun control activists looking to up the ante by making their protests more personal. They’re doing that by protesting at the home of NRA lobbyist Chris Cox and also by targeting his wife’s interior design business.

A sanctuary county… for gun owners
Out in Illinois, the state legislature has been attempting to seize on the supposed momentum for new firearms restrictions and begun passing a raft of new gun control measures. Governor Bruce Rauner has been using his veto powers in some cases, but that hasn’t slowed down the Democrats seeking new restrictions. In response to this flurry of legislative activity, the residents and elected officials of one Illinois county have come up with what some are seeing as at least a partial solution. They’ve voted to declare themselves a “sanctuary county” for gun owners if the new control measures all go into effect.

Government in Healthcare

War & Terror

North and South Korea reportedly set to announce official end to war
Ahead of a summit next week between North Korean premier Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-In, lawmakers from the neighboring states were thought to be negotiating the details of a joint statement that could outline an end to the military conflict between the two countries.

The Navy’s F-35 Has a New Weapon (To Strike Deep Into Enemy Territory)
The United States Navy and the Raytheon have completed integrating the AGM-154C Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) onto the Lockheed Martin F-35C Joint Strike Fighter. The addition of the 70-nautical mile standoff range JSOW paired with the stealthy F-35C will afford the Navy the ability to strike targets deep inside even the toughest enemy air defenses.

The Sneaky Way Russia Could Win a War Against Great Britain
As with landlines, breaks in underwater cables are not uncommon, especially close to shore. But as the New York Times noted in 2015, “what worries Pentagon planners most is that the Russians appear to be looking for vulnerabilities at much greater depths, where the cables are hard to monitor and breaks are hard to find and repair.” If anything, the danger is only likely to increase. The proliferation of unmanned underwater vehicles—sea drones—has opened a new horizon of robots that can stealthily and cheaply destroy or eavesdrop on underwater cables.

Reince Priebus: GOP will revert to old ways after Trump
While hugely popular with his base, President Trump is a “unique” politician who is unlikely to have a lasting impact on the Republican Party, according to former GOP Chairman and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.

Barbara Bush, former first lady, dead at 92
With her cloud of snow-white hair, signature three strand pearls and compelling presence, Barbara Bush’s image was what she laughingly called “everybody’s grandmother.” But the feisty, outspoken Bush was also a tireless advocate for literacy , an author, experienced campaigner and both wife and mother of a U.S. president.

Toomey: Get ready to feel the power of our fully functional Congressional Review Act
When this session of Congress started in January 2017, Republicans rushed to make more use of the Congressional Review Act than at any time since its enactment in 1996. Congress passed numerous resolutions invalidating regulations imposed in the final months of Barack Obama’s presidency, and Donald Trump signed them all. It gave Trump and the GOP bragging rights about their efforts to roll back regulations. Unfortunately, the window on those opportunities – sixty legislative days since implementation of a regulation or rule – quickly passed.

California Democrats Seek To Ban Books, Speech That Violate LGBT Priorities
This week, the assembly in the state of California could vote on a bill that would legitimately ban books, shut down churches, and close psychiatric offices all over the state. What, pray tell, is the purpose of the bill? To prevent anyone from being confronted with material that could advocate changing sexual behavior or gender expression.

Black Woman Brags About Giving White Students Lower Grades On Papers
Every student wins if you have a black teacher; blacks get to see their own in a position of power and whites get to learn more about how oppressive they are as white people. Sounds great right? But what if the social justice warriors are wrong, what if not everybody wins? What would you say if you found out that some black teachers were purposely giving bad grades to white students?

Some doubt McCarthy or Scalise will ever lead House GOP
Here’s a twist: Some congressional Republicans say it’s possible neither Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) nor Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) will be serving in House leadership after the November midterm elections.

Planned Parenthood Instructor Has Mother Arrested for Trying to Audit Pornographic Sex Ed Class
Planned Parenthood is willing to go to extreme lengths to keep parents from knowing what kind of sex education they offer kids. St. Mary’s County Library in Maryland contracted a Planned Parenthood certified instructor to put on a pornographic sex workshop for teens—no parents allowed. When mother Kathleen Crank tried to enter the class, she was arrested for trespassing. It all began when local parents heard about the class and began researching the instructor. What they found was the exact opposite of the type of person they wanted teaching their kids about sex.

DNC Files Multi-Million Dollar Lawsuit Over 2016 Election
The Democratic National Committee has pulled the trigger and filed a massive lawsuit alleging that Russia, WikiLeaks, and the Donald Trump campaign all conspired to disrupt the 2016 election and cause Donald Trump to become the President of the United States.

Twitter Censors Mainstream Conservatism
I tweet pretty regularly, almost always my own Power Line posts, but I never actually go on Twitter, in part because Twitter is a cesspool. Profane language is common, I often read about calls by liberals for conservatives to be murdered, and outrageous hate speech like the tweets I wrote about here is common. If you are on the Left, anything goes.

State Department: Abortion “is not a human right”
Abortion “is not a human right” under international law, a U.S. diplomat emphasized Friday as he explained why the State Department human rights report doesn’t monitor “restrictions” on abortion around the world.

1 Comment on Conservative Article Costs Iowan Government Appointment
You don’t have to be a Trump nominee to face the Christian inquisition. Just ask Iowa conservatives. The bad blood that’s turned the hearings of Mike Pompeo, Russell Vought, and Amy Barrett into anti-faith slugfests seems to be spilling over into state politics, too. And at least one military wife is out of a job because of it.

Conservative Street Artist Sabo Banned from Twitter Permanently
Sabo, the conservative street artist who has given us so much entertainment, has been deplatformed from Twitter. Sabo is most known for his street posters that pop up in California whenever he feels inspired by the news. PJM reached out to Sabo for an interview.

Profs blast Purdue for taking control of writing guide
Following criticism of a handout advising students to avoid “words with masculine markers,” Purdue decided to create an advisory board to oversee the publication, which faculty members equated to dictating “educational content.”

Hammer Time: Author Brad Thor Vows 2020 Challenge to Trump
Author Brad Thor, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, took to Twitter today to issue a challenge for 2020, vowing that if no conservative candidate ran against Trump, he would “absolutely challenge” him for the Republican presidential nomination.

Economy & Taxes

China Slaps 179% Tariff On US Sorghum Hours After US Bans Exports To China’s ZTE
In response to reports that the US is ramping up the “third front” in its trade spat with China by authorizing another investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 – this time, aimed at obstacles that prevent US tech firms from competing in cloud computing and other high-tech industries – China has, as we anticipated, retaliated by slapping tariffs on US sorghum imports.

The Value of Prop 13 as Revealed by a Burned Out House
No surprise that Proposition 13 gets some blame for the housing crisis in California—yet like so many attacks on Prop 13 the truth is opposite what opponents claim. Proposition 13 prevents greater housing woes by helping people keep their homes.

Lock Up Your Daughters – The York Regional Police are Here
The Imam in the photo is Moulana Sayyid Muhhamad Rizvi. The assembled folks are members of the York Regional Police Force. Given the history and belief system of the Imam, it seems bizarre that the York Regional Police would allow lend their credibility to this institution.

Belgium: First Islamic State in Europe?
The leaders of Belgium’s ISLAM Party apparently want to turn Belgium into an Islamic State. They call it “Islamist democracy” and have set a target date: 2030.

Opinion

Whatever the Left Touches It Ruins
The only way to save Western civilization is to convince more people that leftism – not liberalism – is a nihilistic force. Quite literally, whatever the Left touches it ruins.

The Stifling Uniformity of Literary Theory
In 1976, the Nobel-prize winning economist, F.A. Hayek, published The Mirage of Social Justice, the second volume of his magnum opus Law, Legislation and Liberty.1 Despite being widely regarded as the definitive critique of social justice, today one would be lucky to find advocates of social justice in the academy who are familiar with the name ‘Hayek’, let alone those who have read him. Among classical liberals, libertarians, and conservatives alike, Hayek is one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century whose The Road to Serfdom represents one of the most powerful arguments against socialism ever written.2 But those in the academy who have perpetuated socialist ideas since the 1980s have practically ignored it. In this article, I will argue that this unwillingness to engage with the ‘other side’ is not only endemic in the radical intellectual schools that have overtaken literary studies, but also that it is symptomatic of their entire way of thinking which, being hermetically sealed and basically circular in its argumentation, has no language to deal with critics beyond reactive moral condemnation.

3 Cases to Watch as the Supreme Court Begins to Wrap This Term
This week marks the start of the Supreme Court’s final oral argument sessions of the current term. The justices will hear arguments in several important cases, including challenges to the constitutionality of administrative law judges, state sales taxes for out-of-state online retailers, and the infamous Trump “travel ban,” making this month one to watch.

California’s Simmering Political Revolt
On the surface, California seems politically monolithic. But as its younger citizens come of age, and as they find themselves locked out of homeownership and economic opportunity, a revolt is brewing.

When the Twitter Mob Came for Me
Recently hired by the Atlantic and then promptly fired, the conservative writer Kevin D. Williamson discusses the social-media outrage that made the celebrated magazine retreat

Poor Andrew Cuomo Struggles With Life Of Zero Intersectionality Points
Poor Andrew Cuomo is having a tough time rallying his base to vote for him to stay New York’s governor. For a cis-gendered white male, it’s so hard to get attention from progressives these days, especially when an actual woman is running for the same position. So Cuomo has been self-identifying as an undocumented, black, gay Jew who is also Muslim. Yes, seriously.

Liberalism as Faith
The British philosopher John Gray is not someone to shy away from “difficult” topics. If you are looking for a provocative long read this weekend, his new article in the Times Literary Supplement ought to be a contender. I didn’t agree with all of it (for example, I would argue that the supposedly secular totalitarianisms of the twentieth century—essentially millenarian sects, as Gray rightly observes—were even more “religious” than even he would claim), not that that matters.